Dennis Heaton
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CANADIAN CANADA $7 FALL 2015 VOL.18, NO.1 SCREENWRITER FILM | TELEVISION | RADIO | DIGITAL MEDIA Not Getting Lost In Translation Is Key In Adapting Quebec Shows Sci-Fi: Not Just For Nerdy Guys Anymore Games And How To Script Them Dennis Heaton: Fired Up Over Motive PM40011669 please indicate Your You be the choice of categorY: ★CHILDREN★ ★DOCUMENTARY★ ★Judge★ ★MOVIES & MINISERIES★ ★SHORTS & WEBSERIES★ ★TV COMEDY★ experienced screenwriters ★TV DRAMA★ ★TWEENS & TEENS★ needed as volunteer Judges Judges must be WGC members, th and may only judge categories in for the 20 annual which they are not entered. wgc screenwriting TO APPLY, EMAIL [email protected] WITH THE SUBJECT: awards “WGC AWARDS JUDGE S .” CANADIAN SCREENWRITERS ARE… Writing Writing what WRITING what SUCCESS Canada SELLS ON ALL SCREENS Watches Internationally Telling Canadian stories… to the World. Writers Guild of Canada www.wgc.ca CANADIAN SCREENWRITER The journal of the Writers Guild of Canada Vol. 18 No. 1 Fall 2015 Contents ISSN 1481-6253 Features Publication Mail Agreement Number Dennis Heaton: On Fire For Motive 6 400-11669 Writing and showrunning one of television’s Publisher Maureen Parker freshest takes on police procedurals has attracted Editor Tom Villemaire attention to the series and the team that creates it. [email protected] How do they do it? Director of Communications Li Robbins By Diane Wild Editorial Advisory Board Denis McGrath (Chair) Sci-Fi Suddenly Mainstream 12 Michael MacLennan Once the domain of guys, sci-fi and fantasy is now Susin Nielsen out of the television version of a ghetto and riding a Simon Racioppa star-cruiser down main street and it’s not just guys President Jill Golick (Central) who are watching and paying attention. Councillors By Katherine Brodsky Michael Amo (Atlantic) Mark Ellis (Central) Writing For The Console And Dennis Heaton (Pacific) Computer Game Market 16 Denis McGrath (Central) Screenwriters are finding a whole new area to put Anne-Marie Perrotta (Quebec) Andrew Wreggitt (Western) their talents to use and for some, it’s not only profitable, it’s also creatively satisfying. Art Direction Studio Ours By Matthew Hays Design Studio Ours Printing Ironstone Media Not Losing Something In Translation 20 Cover Photo: Christina Gapic Adapting shows from a different culture and language Canadian Screenwriter is requires a deft touch and an understanding of both sides published three times a year by of the equation in order to keep what works and make it the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC). relevant to a new audience. 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite 401 By Mark Dillon Toronto, Ontario M5V 1R9 TEL: (416) 979-7907 FAX: (416) 979-9273 WEBSITE: www.wgc.ca W-Files Subscriptions: WGC members receive a Amy Cole — By Cameron Archer 25 subscription as part of their membership. Andrew De Angelis — By Kendra Wong 27 Non-member subscriptions: $20 for three issues. Advertising policy: Readers should not Columns assume that any products or services From the Editor/Contributors 2 advertised in Canadian Screenwriter are Inside/Out — Michael Amo 3 endorsed by the WGC. “Oh Great Scribe...” — Advice for Editorial Policy: The WGC neither implicitly nor explicitly endorses opinions or attitudes the Scriptlorn 32 expressed in Canadian Screenwriter. Submissions are subject to editing for News length, style and content. Beat Sheet 4 Advertising Sales: Spotlight 28 Visit www.wgc.ca or contact Li Robbins at [email protected] New Members 30 Letters to the editor are subject to editing Money for Missing Writers 31 for length. Not all letters are published. FROM THE EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS When A Spring 2015 Relationship Ends Michael Amo has written Gem- ini-nominated TV movies. He also created the The Listener. In this issue, one of the things we look at is the challenge of adapting Presently, he’s developing a shows written for one culture to another. Say, a French-language project with Sony Pictures Tele- Quebec television series to a series for an English audience. What are vision. He lives with his family in the professional challenges there? We also look at a slightly similar situation, that of writers or showrunners being swapped in to a show Nova Scotia. to augment or replace other writers and/or showrunners. What are the professional and emotional challenges to that scenario? Cameron Archer runs the There are a few reasons a series might be handed off to a new or Canadian television/media partly new story department. website Gloryosky (http://www. “It’s not you; it’s me” — The broadcaster, that is essentially sweetposer.com/), and is also a paying for the series, has a different “vision” than the showrunner. It’s not necessarily a better vision. It’s not necessarily a more freelance arts writer. He currently commercial vision (although that is more likely). It’s just a matter of a lives in Eastern Ontario. “different” vision. Then there is the, “No, actually, it is you” — a matter of A freelance arts and entertain- personalities. That situation is more like a marriage that seems like a ment writer, Katherine Brodsky great idea at the start and then one person starts complaining about has written for , the way the other flosses their teeth while they wander around the Variety Enter- house. Notes start getting passed that are no longer romantic or tainment Weekly, USA Weekend, funny but curt and sometimes cruel. Mashable, Elle Canada, MovieMak- Sometimes it’s for a happy reason — the showrunner or head er Magazine, The Independent, writer is moving on to bigger and better things (maybe even for the Stage Directions, and many oth- same broadcaster). ers. She has interviewed a diverse Other times it’s more like an amicable divorce, where the two range of intriguing personalities, parties separate and realize it’s not a failure on either side — they can still be friends, but they just don’t work well together. including Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, And sometimes it’s not happy at all. I mean, what does she see in Tony, and Pulitzer winners. In her him anyway? spare time she wears sunglasses So you watch your show that someone else has taken over and at night and runs her own cult, try to be objective. I mean, maybe some people like that sort of thing. Katherineology. Follow her on You try really hard not to point out to your friends when Twitter @mysteriouskat something doesn’t work on the show. And your friends, while supportive, tell you it’s time to move on. But you have, right? I mean maybe you miss the show, but Mark Dillon is a Toronto-based seriously, you’re way happier now. freelance journalist and former Look at all the other shows that have had successful transitions editor of Playback magazine. He under new writers and showrunners. And the people who left those is author of the award-winning shows turned out ok, right? All relationships improve us. Even if it’s only to make us a little Fifty Sides of The Beach Boys. tougher, like scar tissue on a prize fighter. The next one is always at least a little better. Every step you take makes you a little stronger Matthew Hays is a Montre- and gets you closer to your goal. Sometimes the goal isn’t always in al-based writer, author, and the direction you first set off, but it’s always where you end up. university and college instruc- Yeah. You’re fine and if they can’t deal with your art, your vision, tor. His articles have appeared that’s their problem. You’re moving on down the road. in The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, The Guardian, Vice, — Tom Villemaire Maclean’s, The Walrus, Cineaste, INSIDE/OUT Time To Start A Fire POV, and The Toronto Star. He teaches courses in film studies at Michael Amo is the WGC councillor for the Marianopolis College and Concor- Atlantic region dia University. His book, The View from Here: Conversations with A chill has fallen on Nova Scotia’s film and TV industry that’s got (Ar- Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers nothing to do with the autumnal equinox. The mercury dropped senal Pulp), won a 2008 Lambda in the spring, when our deficit-fighting provincial finance minister Literary Award and he received broke a Liberal election promise by announcing that our labour tax the Concordia President’s Award credit program was up for review. Things got positively polar on for Teaching Excellence for 2013- July 1, when the Liberals killed the credit and introduced their new 14. incentive program. They insist it will all work out just dandy — once the kinks get worked out. This is cold comfort — particularly after the disastrous After completing a commercial three months we just had. What should have been a red-hot arts program in college, specif- summer thanks to the weak dollar turned out to be a near-total ically taken for developing his bust with production fleeing to more welcoming jurisdictions. photography, Jeff Weddell be- Almost everyone I talk to seems to be contemplating exit gan working as a photographer strategies. Plenty have already left. The longer they’re gone, the more likely it is they won’t return. over 30 years ago, covering all I see the same freeze-out happening right across Canada as aspects of the field, from com- networks here try to cope with shrinking revenue. When it comes mercial, advertising, corporate to original content, their strategy seems to be “Let’s do what we’ve portraiture and fine arts. Jeff also always done — only less.” works in film and television cap- The drastic drop in opportunity means we either move to turing production stills, as well as L.A.